Yes, we are a few minutes away from Roppongi Crossing.

And why are we here today? It's because, in Japan, summers are usually really, really hot, and, like, fatigue that you endure because of it is called "Natsubate".

One of the best remedies for Natsubate here in Japan for this extremely hot summer humid heat is...

... to eat some delicious unagi eels.

And what is the best place to go to for eels out here in, like, the Roppongi area?

Well, you actually wanna find something that's cheap and delicious, and I think we've got the perfect place for you.

- And that is? - Manzen.

It's a very small shop, but they're very friendly; it's very nice.

Anyways, let's go; I'm so hungry and so hot, so let's go.

Now, the good thing about this shop is, it's pretty cheap for a unagi restaurant.

- The usual price for unagi is what⏤goes around for, like, what, 4,000, 3,000 yen. - It can go up to 4,000, 5,000.

But here, you can get it for less than 1,000 yen.

Now, I'm getting pretty hungry.

So, which one are you gonna get from here?

I think I'm going to get the unadon.

One second; before we continue ordering, here are five ways to eat unagi eel.

First off, we have the unadon, which is unagi glazed with "tare", a sweet, thick soy sauce on top of a bowl of rice.

There's also unajyu; it's the same as unadon, but instead of a bowl, you eat it in a rectangle-shaped lacquer box.

One of my personal favorites, Hitsumabushi, which is mostly enjoyed in Nagoya.

You get a ton of unagi on top of rice and you get to eat it three different ways: on its own, with green onion and seaweed, or topped with a hot broth.

Then you have the nigiri version, which is basically a sushi.

And, finally, Shirayaki, where the eel is grilled without any tare.

Manzen has a simple Japanese menu.

They have a 980-yen unadon, a 1,980-yen unajyu, and, finally, they have a 2,980-yen tokusen unajyu, which is higher quality and has a lot more eel.

You could also order extras like unagi liver soup and a hitsumabushi set for only 500 yen extra.

- Okay, let's order. - Yeah!

Let's have this one.

And then we have the hitsumabushi set; hitsumabushi, it's amazing and I...

- I want to try that, yeah. Yeah. - You want to try it right?

So, now that we've placed our order, let's go to the kitchen and check out how they make the eel.

Let's go do it.

The eels come from Yamada Suisan, a company in Kagoshima prefecture, south-east in Japan.

They are famous for being the only organic eel farm in Japan.

The chef prepares the eels kabayaki style, meaning it's glazed with tare sauce before being broiled on a charcoal grill.

That's yours, I believe, the tokusen, here you go; wow, look at that.

It's like a whole eel⏤it's more than one eel, actually, on this.

It has gold flakes on top, too.

And I have the unadon set here; that also looks good.

He has more eel than me, though.

On my plate, we have, like, one full eel and a half.

We have some gold flakes on the top, and what kind of sauce is covered on the top?

So, it's tare, which is basically, like, a really sweet thick soy sauce.

- And yours? What do you have? - And on my⏤yeah, on my plate, we have a soup.

So, what I ordered⏤the eel liver here and also got the unadon here.

When you eat unagi, you have this, like, small colorful bottle of sansho, which is like already grinded.

Here, you actually grind the sansho yourself; sansho is actually a Japanese spice.

So, is it kinda like a sour, peppery...?

- Actually, so, I read somewhere on the internet that⏤ - Oh, boy.

That the spice comes from a tree that's actually from the same family as, like, lemons, and like, it's a citrus.

- So, it's kinda like... - So, it's citrusy and it's also a little bit spicy.

Well, then, y'know, as they always say, "Itadakimasu."

- Let's dig in. - Let's dig in.

Wow, so, already I could tell here, it's very very very soft and it comes off so easily.

- Yeah. - So, let's try it on its own.

That is delicious.

But don't eat it all, because you also have, like, these little things here.

If you've never had hitsumabushi.

Please explain, because to be honest, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with this.

So, you have this spoon here.

Spoon!

To take the rice and unagi to put inside this bowl, and you can you eat it three different ways.

You can eat it on its own or with some of the greens that you have here.

So, you have like some nori, which is some seaweed and some green onions.

They also give you, like, some hot soup, so you can do like ochazuke on it, so...

You basically eat the three different ways, and then, you finish it the way you like it.

Alright, so, here it goes.

I think it definitely adds some more flavor.

Obviously, with the nori and the seaweed, but the texture that it adds to it.

- Yeah. Like, a little bite to it, right? - Definitely.

I think I like this, there's like a little hint of wasabi in there.

- But you got another way to try it! - Delicious.

- And this is with the... - Hot soup. It's what you call in Japanese, ochazuke.

- Ochazuke, so... - Rice with hot soup.

Ok, here it goes. So, let's try it.

- This really brings out the flavor of, like, the sauce. - Yeah.

- The tare that they added? - Right?

It kinda pulls out a little bit more of, like, the sweetness to it; very, very, very savory.

Unagi is actually very popular in Japan during the summer time; why is that?

So, the reason why is actually the unagi is filled with, like, omega A oils, so it's perfect when it's really hot and really humid outside and your body is tired.

This helps your stamina.

But, actually, there's another reason to it because every year in Japan there's the Doyo-no-Ushi-no-Hi, which is the day of the Ox, which is actually the day where it's, like, the hottest in Japan.

- This year... - This year, it's the 25th of July, right?

Yeah.

So, on the day of the Ox, back in the Edo period, what they would do is, to bring good luck,

they would eat some food that are black, so you have, like, black beans, eggplants.

- But... - Hm... okay.

Unagi no Kabayaki, also, is kinda black, so that's why they would eat it, to bring them good luck.

So, if you guys don't mind, we're gonna go ahead and finish up our unagi here and get our grub on.

- So, if you'd like to see more yummy content like this in the future... - ... don't hesitate to subscribe.

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Cheers!